Ms Mary Keane:

I wonder if I could speak on behalf of the Law Society. There seems to be a theme developing on a point with which we do not agree. That is the suggestion that is made that in order to be eligible for appointment to a particular court, there should be some statutory nexus between the candidate's experience before that court and eligibility for for appointment.

It is a multi-step process. The first hurdle is eligibility. After that comes the criteria that must be met on a basis of merit for appointment to any and every court in the land. In actual fact, in our submission we have called for the removal of the anomaly that is in Head 21 B(1), which applies to the superior courts rather than its extension to the courts of local and limited jurisdiction, as suggested by the Bar. We would like eligibility to be harmonised across all courts, but not by extending a restriction, rather by removing it. Once people are eligible and get across the line and the more solicitors, academics and barristers that are eligible, then there is a much broader and more diverse pool from which they can be drawn. By its nature it will be more diverse if more people are eligible. That will increase diversity in respect of geography, gender, sexual orientation and everything that exists across all walks of life, whether it is the Bar, solicitors or the academic world.

Another point I would make is that it is all very well talking about diversity - and diversity in eligibility - but there must also be diversity in appointment.

Solicitors have been eligible for appointment to the superior courts since 2002 but the percentages are appalling. We have not crunched the recent numbers but we crunched numbers for the last scheme. Between 2002 and 2016, solicitors were eligible for appointment to all of the courts. There were 90 appointments to the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, that is, the superior courts, eight of whom were solicitors. We can have all the diversity we want in eligibility but people are not actually being appointed. There is a phrase which I love, which is that diversity is being invited to the party but inclusion is being asked to dance. We would like diversity and inclusion, please. We would like to see more solicitors being asked to dance, and we would like to see more people of different backgrounds being asked to dance, and it being reflective of society. That is how we feel on diversity and inclusion because, nowadays, one is no good without the other.